About Me

Fr. Murchadh was ordained a priest for the diocese of Galway, in the West of Ireland in 1998. He has worked as a hospital chaplain and in various parishes. He also did further studies in Rome for three years and completed his doctorate in Spiritual Theology in 2005, in the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (The Angelicum). He is currently working in the diocese of Venice, Florida, into which he was 'incardinated' (officially transferred) in May 2018.
Fr. Murchadh has also published three books: Therese of Lisieux: Through Love and Suffering (London:St. Paul, 2005); Centering Prayer and the Healing of the Unconscious (New York: Lantern, 2007); By the Word of Their Testimony: The Journey of a Priest (New York: Lantern, 2009).

Friday, January 18, 2019

All
of you, I’m sure, have been to weddings. They are happy occasions and we want
the best for the couple starting out on their journey. We try and provide them
with gifts to help them establish their new home. Older people try to pass on
some wisdom to the bride and groom, to help them on their way. Just like at a
child’s first Communion, you would never want them to be embarrassed. Once in a
while you may have come across a wedding where something went wrong and the
bride and groom were embarrassed and it’s awful. It is a day which should be as
perfect as possible.

Mediterranean
weddings during the time of Christ would have lasted about a week and have
involved the whole village. Who would want their wedding to be remembered for
the one that ran out of wine, the sign of celebration. It would be considered a
bad omen.

Mary
the mother of Jesus, becomes aware of the problem and points it out to Jesus.
She intercedes for the couple, just as she intercedes for us. Would Jesus
refuse something asked by his mother? He didn’t refuse her request on this
occasion either, even though he objected that this was not the time for his
public ministry to begin. That is one of the reasons why we continually turn to
Mary for help, because we know that she is looking out for us.

In
the bible, wine is a sign of God’s blessing, a sign of celebration, a sign of
happiness. What is amazing is the amount of wine that Jesus made. 6 stone water
jars containing 20 to 30 gallons amounts to almost 1,000 bottles of wine. Even
for a big wedding that is an awful lot of wine. What is this telling us? It
tells us that not only is God with us in the ordinary things of life, but that
God wants to bless us lavishly, with great abundance, not just to give us what
we need, but far more.

Generally,
when we pray for our needs, we hope that God will answer us, although we often
wonder if He will. Does God even hear us when we pray? That is question that
many people ask. From what the Lord tells us through the Scriptures, He assures
us that He always answers us. ‘Ask and it shall
be given to you. Knock and the door shall
be opened to you. Seek and you shall
find’ (Matt 7:7). He doesn’t say ‘Ask and it might be given to you.’

In
another parable Jesus tells us to pray for what we need to the point of annoyance
(Luke 18:1-8). He uses the story of the unjust judge, who fears neither God nor
man. But a widow keeps demanding her rights. It says that initially he refuses,
but in the end the judge gave her what she asked simply because she was wearing
him down. And Jesus says, that is how we should pray. We should pray to the
point of annoyance.

Then
we go back to the miracle of water and wine at Cana. Not only did God come to
the couple’s rescue, but he did so with outlandish generosity. The Lord is
telling us the same thing. Keep asking for what you need and God will answer
you and with great generosity. We may not always recognize the answer given, or
it may not be the answer we hoped for, but God always answers when we ask.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

‘The truth I have now come to realize is that
God does not have favorites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God
and does what is right is acceptable to him’ (Acts 10:34-35).

One of the many benefits that comes
from a more mixed society, where we have people from many different parts of
the world living together, is that it helps to broaden our minds. For 18 months lived in a
religious community and we often have people from different parts of the world.
One morning when we came down for breakfast, two of us noticed that
someone had cut the loaf of bread not from top to bottom into slices the way we
usually do, but from one side to the other across the middle. In other words
they had done the complete opposite of what we were used to. The two of us who
noticed this at the same time both began to complain saying, ‘Who is the idiot
that did this!’ But then almost immediately we both began to check ourselves
and say, ‘I suppose there is no law that says you can’t do it this way!’ and we
laughed at ourselves and how fixed we can be in our ways. It was a Taiwanese
priest living with us whose culture is very different from ours. Something as
simple as this helped us to see how small-minded we can be in our ways.

In the second reading today St. Peter
says he realised how anyone can be acceptable to God if they do what is right. That
might seem obvious enough to us, but it wasn’t obvious to them at that time. The
Jewish people believed that they were specially chosen by God, and that meant anyone
else who was not Jewish was not so important to God. But then the Lord began to
teach the Apostles that in fact He was there for everyone, of every nationality
and creed. It took them a while to come
around to this way of thinking. In fact the first few times some Gentiles
(non-Jews) received the gift of the Spirit, the Apostles were quite surprised. They
hadn’t expected this. They didn’t think that Gentiles would be given the gift
of the Spirit. God was helping them to gradually broaden their horizons. Everyone,
of every nationality and creed was being called into God’s family. The Lord
showed this to St. Peter through a vision (See Acts 10:9-16). Peter saw a
vision of a great sheet being let down from heaven filled with all kinds of
animals and birds. Then he heard a voice saying:

“Now Peter, Kill and
eat!” But Peter answered, “Certainly
not, Lord; I have never yet eaten anything profane or unclean.” Again a second
time, the voice spoke to him, “What God has made clean, you have no right to call
profane”. This was repeated three times and suddenly the container was drawn up
to heaven again (Acts 10:13-16).

This vision helped Peter to
understand that no-one was ‘unclean’ in God’s sight if they tried to live the
right way. The Lord was helping Peter to see a bigger picture, but as with most
of us, this happens gradually. Everyone is called to be part of God’s family.

After Jesus was Baptised in the
Jordan a vision was seen of the Spirit coming down on him in the form of a
dove. The Father in heaven was empowering him with the gift of the Spirit, to
enable him to live the mission that the Father had given him, to teach the
people about God and to offer himself for the sins of the world. The Spirit
gave him the strength and wisdom He needed for this difficult mission.

Perhaps another reason why people
were allowed to see the Spirit descend in bodily form was to remind us of what
happens when we are baptized. We are
given the gift of the Spirit to enable us to live the Christian life. It is not
a way of life that we can live by our own strength; it would be too difficult. This
is why God gives us the gift of his Spirit to guide, strengthen and teach us. Jesus
said to the Apostles that after He had ascended into heaven He would send the
Spirit, ‘Who will teach you everything’ (John 16:13b). Our minds can only take
so much, and we are continually learning about the ways of God. As we continue
to pray and try and live the Christian way of life, the Lord teaches us more
and more. So much of what our faith is about is completely beyond us, and so
the Lord teaches us little by little.

When we are baptized we state what it
is we believe and we commit ourselves to this way of faith. For many of us someone
else will have spoken on our behalf if we were baptized as infants, but this is
done on the understanding that we will be taught about our faith as we grow up,
otherwise it would make no sense. If we come for baptism as adults we will be
examined before-hand to make sure we understand the commitment we are taking
on. But the greatest part of Baptism is the gift of the Spirit who will teach
us all we need to know, and who will continue to challenge us in different ways
so that we grow ever closer to God. As long as we remain open to the gift of
God’s Spirit we will be drawn deeper and deeper into God. Only in God will we
find our true happiness and fulfillment and so the more we give ourselves to
this journey the more fulfillment we will find.

‘The truth I have now come to realize
is that God does not have favorites, but that anybody of any nationality who
fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him’ (Acts 10:34-35).

Friday, January 4, 2019

The
feast of the Epiphany is an interesting one. In the Eastern
Catholic Churches (the ones with all the icons), it is the feast
of Christ's baptism, when Jesus was revealed to the world. In our tradition it is the feast where the three kings come to acknowledge and worship Jesus as Lord and God. For some Churches, this is also the day when gifts are exchanged, just as the kings gave the gifts
to the child Jesus. Here we celebrate it as the feast of Christ being
recognised by the world. The three wise men, or astrologers,
were led to this place where Christ was. They read the stars and saw this huge star with great wonder. They are supposed to
have come from different countries. They represent all the
peoples of the world since they were not Jewish. It is a way of
saying that Jesus’ coming is for all peoples of all religions and
race. All people will recognise that Jesus is the Son of God.

The
three gifts they bring are symbolic. Gold is the symbol of a
king. Jesus is a king, King of kings and the master of the whole
universe. The use of frankincense is a sign of recognising a
divinity or God. Jesus is Son of God, the second person of the
God-head. And myrrh is a perfume that represents the suffering
He will go through to win eternal life for the human race. The
symbolism of the three pagan kings is that all peoples of all
religions and nations will recognise that Jesus Christ is Lord and
that we only have eternal life through him.

It
might seem a bit arrogant of us to say that all people will recognise
that Jesus is the Son of God. That seems to imply that we are
right and that everyone else is wrong, but that is not the
case. People of different religions have very different
understandings of God and God speaks to all people through the
different religions. Even for those who never come to know Jesus in
this lifetime, they still have eternal life won for them by the death
and resurrection of Christ and eternal life is still offered to them
through him, just as it is to us. When they die they will see
this at once. They will know immediately who Jesus is and what
He has done for us.

Although
we lost the possibility of eternal life with God through what we call
Original Sin, God regained the possibility of eternal life for us
through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We can accept or
reject this gift individually and we do this through our faith. All
people are offered this possibility regardless of whether they come
to know of God in this life or not, but it is not as if there is a
kind of neutral ground for those who do not believe. We accept
life with God when we die which will be our total fulfilment, or we
lose it forever and that is the choice we must make.

This
is also where our conscience is so important, because even if we
never hear of God during our life, God speaks to us through our
conscience, giving us a basic understanding of what is right and
wrong. Our faith and the teachings of Jesus through the Church
give us a better understanding of what is right or wrong. All of
the decisions that we make throughout our life are bringing us closer
to, or driving us farther away from God.

We
Christians are the people who recognise that Jesus is the Son of God
and has done all these things for us. We consider ourselves
blessed that God has made himself known to us in this way, but it
doesn’t mean that we have a better chance of going to heaven than
anyone else. That depends completely on how we live our life.
When we die we will realise that all this is really true. And
when other people of different religions die, they will also
recognise that Jesus Christ is Lord. What is important for them is to
live their faith as well as they can just as it is for us. If they do
this, God will also draw them closer to him and bring them to
holiness, just as He will with us if we remain open.

Meanwhile
we pray that all peoples will begin to recognise that Jesus Christ is
Lord even in this life, because this is the truth which God has
revealed to us Either way we try to respect people who believe
differently to us and remember that they are also children of God.